Sunday, December 11, 2016

La La Land

Writer/Director Damien Chazelle’s La La Land is a wonderful
film about dreams, choices and magic.

From the get-go, Chazelle made a bold and successful
choice by bringing film musicals into the 21st century with a Mandy
Moore-choreographed dance number in the midst of L.A. morning traffic.

Further, he decided to make the film about all dreamers by choosing to bring the
lead actors Ryan Gosling (Seb) and Emma Stone (Mia) into the scene after the
magical number composed by Justin Hurwitz with lyrics by Justin Paul and Benj
Pasek was well under way and all but the most jaded viewers were under the film’s
spell.

So, the love story of Seb and Mia became the love story
of every man and woman pursuing their individual dreams.

Of particular specialness is the fact that Emma Stone’s
voice is small and tentative in the early scenes, endearing us to the fact she
is not an accomplished singer.That
proves to be another magical turn, when later in the film, she belts out a song
with incredible strength and gusto.

And, the only “mistake,” in my opinion, was in the 3rd
or Fall part of the film, when Chazelle elected to drop magic and go to realism
in the low part of the relationship instead of using another song to express
the emotions and keep the audience in the magical air.

This delicate story would not have worked, if it were not
for the brilliant Cinematography of Linus Sangren and the equally brilliant
cutting of his images by Editor Tom Cross. And, Mary Zophres costumes perfectly
added to the film’s flavor, as well.

La La Land is definitely on the
must-see list of this year’s movies.I
give it a 4.7 out of 5.

About Me

Brian Porzak: I am a cinephile who likes to view films with a live audience. My taste runs the gamut, including indies, studio films, foreign films and most all genres. Because I see so many films, friends often ask me what to see. So, I thought I'd blog about what is worth seeing or not. As a writer/filmmaker myself, I hope to give a more uplifting perspective than the typical critic. Filmmaking is tremendously difficult. Just because some problems might exist in a particular work does not, necessarily, destroy its enjoyability and I think that is necessary to point out to would-be viewers.
See www.Aix-en-Film.com